2. My PC/laptop has crashed but won't turn off...

This may happen in circumstances where your computer hardware or software malfunctions for any of a number of reasons. Often simply restarting the computer is enough to clear the problem.

Here is a list of steps to try, in order of the disruption they might cause,  to see if you can turn the machine off:

1. The first step is to check that you cannot regain control of your computer off by pressing the CTRL+ALT+DEL key combination. If you press these three keys together and do not see any reaction, or if you don't see your mouse pointer move on-screen when you move your mouse around, try again after 5 minutes. Your computer may be in the middle of carrying out a processor intensive task and may need time for this to complete before it can respond to you.
2. If there is still no sign of any response or activity after 5 minutes then briefly press the on/off button on your computer. In some cases, this will activate Windows automatic shut down process and your computer will switch itself off within 5 minutes or so.
3. If none of these techniques work then contact our helpdesk engineers who may be able to connect to your computer remotely and switch it off "gently".
4. If they can't do this either then they may instruct you to press and hold down the on/off button on your computer for 5 seconds to switch off the power.

   Note: this last action usually results in losing data which is in the computer memory when it is switched off forcefully: this means the most recent work you were doing before it froze.

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